Winnie The Pooh Cake

A good friend of mine, Adina, asked me to bake birthday cake for her son's birthday, Lachie. I was thrilled and stunned at the same time. I made birthday cakes for adults but never ever made for kids before. She requested to be a theme birthday cake and also left it up to me to decide on what kind of character I should bake.  As she mentioned a lot about Winnie the pooh, so I did lots of research to make the perfect Winnie the pooh cake for Lachie. It was his 1st Birthday after all and I wanted to give my friend something memorable for her son. Well, it was a challenge indeed. 

At the end of the day, Three things were really my saviour, My husband as always, who helped me to shape the winnie the pooh character and the honey jar, Secondly, the cake cook book called Planet Cake by Paris Cutler, which explains in details on the basic of making perfect decorated cake, hints and trips on trouble shooting and the tools required, Lastly, the cake decorating shop on Flinders St on Melbourne CBD called Cake Deco (Address - Shop 7. Port Phillip Arcade, 232 Flinders St, Melbourne), which supplies any kind of  tools, ingredients and decoration you need. 

I decided to bake 2 layers of cake with combination of dark chocolate mud cake for the 1st layer and white chocolate mud cake for 2nd layer, covering with dark chocolate ganache on the top, which gives better texture and moist for icing.  It was a fun challenge and I must say thank you for my friend, Adina, to give me this opportunity. 

Winnie The Pooh Cake

Basic White/ Dark Chocolate Mud Cake 

(For one 22 cm round cake or 20 cm square cake)
(Make one for each white and dark chocolate mud cake)

Ingredients

300g Unsalted Butter, Chopped

300g White/ Dark Couverture Chocolate, chopped

300g Plain Flour

150g Self Raising Flour

400g Caster Sugar

3 Eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 teaspoon, natural vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven 180°. Grease the tin and line the base and sides with baking paper. Put the butter and 270 ml water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted. Turn off the heat, then add the chocolate and stir until it has melted and is well combined.


2. Sift the flours together in a bowl. Add the sugar, a pinch of salt and make well in the centre.


3. Pour the chocolate mixture, egg and vanilla into the well then stir until well combined.


4. Pour into the cake tin. Bake for 1 hour 40 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and skewer comes out clean into the middle of the cake. (If the cake is browning too quickly, cover the foil halfway through baking).


5. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.


6. Cut the cake and shape to number 1.


(I forgot to take a picture for the white chocolate mud cake, I only have this picture for dark chocolate mud cake)

Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

1.2kg Dark Chocolate, finely chopped

600 ml Pure Cream

Method

1. Put the chocolate pieces in a large bowl

2. Put the cream in a sauce pan and bring to boiling point. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and mix with a hand whisk until the ganache is smooth. (Do not use an electric whisk, as you will create too many air bubbles in the ganache, Also make sure you use pure cream and do not use thickened cream as thickened cream contains gelatine.

3. Allow to cool completely, spread to cool cake and let it set until it is firm to the touch

4. Once the cake is set and smoothly ganache, cake is ready to covered with icing.

I used Ready to Roll Icing to cover the cake and Flower Moulding Paste to shape the Winnie the pooh and Honey Jar, which I got them from Cake Deco Shop on Flinders St, Melbourne CBD.

Once the cake is covered with icing, the fun part began. This was the part that we can go as crazy and creative in decorating the cake and let the imagination out.

The birthday boy finally enjoyed his winnie the pooh cake.  One happy client.

I must say that this is the epic cake that I ever baked and really was a fun challenge. Happy Birthday, Lachie.